Thursday, 18 June 2015

Watching the news tonight I was dismayed at the complete
lack of creative thinking currently being applied to some high profile issues. I
should declare upfront that, alongside my work as a Presentation Skills coach I
train PR people in Creative Thinking.

Take the first issue – the government ‘s early – albeit
flagged in the manifesto – withdrawal

from subsidising onshore wind energy
facilities. NIMBYism is apparently one of the big problems – people just don’t
like the look of the giant propellers than generate a cheap, clean energy.
There was much talking around the subject but no one seems to be considering
this: what might be done to make them more attractive? We like the look of
windmills – artists paint pictures of them and they make the landscape look
beautiful. Might there be a way of achieving a similar result with the modern
day version? The answer may be no, but let’s at least consider it.

Issue number two – the Palace of Westminster is crumbling.
It’s going to cost between three and seven billion – yes, billion - pounds to
repair it.Depending on various options
it could take anything from six to thirty-two years to complete the work. What
is missing from this information? Answer: how much it would cost and how long
it would take to pull the whole thing down and start again with a building more
suited to today’s needs.

Now, no one likes a bit of history and heritage more than me
and I would be very sad to see the wrecking balls applied to the ‘Mother of all
Parliaments’. But if you are going to have a proper debate you need to consider
all the options, including the so-called ‘nuclear’ options. Considering
extremes is a very effective way of both stretching the imagination – you think
of all kinds of potential solutions; some of them will be a bit mad and you may
not actually use any of them, but it will help to bring fresh thinking to the
problem. Extremes are also useful for putting things into perspective. It might
be, for instance, that it is cheaper to repair than to rebuild, in which case
the current shocking figures can be presented as a bargain. It might be that it
is slightly more expensive to repair than to rebuild, in which case the whole
focus can be on the difference between the two costs rather that just one big,
horrific number.

So we are now getting into communication issues here as well
as the need for creative thinking – which is why the whole thing both fascinates and frustrates me.

I have a quick, potentially highly effective solution to propose. Have a
dip into any of these books: One + One = Three, Predatory Thinking and Creative Mischief. You will soon see that their author, the advertising legend
Dave Trott, is brilliant at thinking sideways and back to front – never mind
outside the box – to come up with solutions to any kind of challenge. Give Dave
a peerage and appoint him Minister for Creative Solutions without delay.